sevencrossing said:
I "discovered " it years ago , but it was by accident, which I though was idea of this thread

Yes, that's exactly the idea of this thread, and what I hoped to hear. Some serious comments about feature that members genuinely might not be aware of, and also some light hearted stories about discovering seemingly obvious (to the rest of us) features. Sevencrossing's story about not noticing or understanding the significance of the light bulb symbol on the on/off switch is a great example, and although one I discovered immediately on picking a modern Nikon camera up, might have eluded me also. Think about it, it does require (on mine at least) some extra force to turn the switch to the light bulb position, I can well imagine some new users being frightened to push it that way for fear of breaking something, and as we all know, not everyone reads the manual. Personally I love being shown rather than reading how something works, as not only do you find out what it does, you can also ask "why" you would want to. This is something I often find lacking in owners manuals, the rationale behind using a setting, and examples of when it would benefit.

1) Easy ISO adjust. Custom setting d3 > "Show ISO/Easy ISO"
This sets the ISO adjustment to be done with just the command dial or sub-command dial, depending on the exposure mode. (no need to hold down the ISO button) In Aperture Priority, it's the main command dial, in Shutter Priority and Program it's the sub-command dial. Great thing when you want a fixed shutter and or/aperture and the lighting conditions change rapidly and you want to keep the camera at your eye with minimal fumbles.

2) Assign FN button for "Access top item in MY MENU" I have the top item set to toggle auto ISO on or off. Much faster than digging through the menus to get to the ISO sensitivity settings in the shooting menu.

Ya' got my curiosity up, so I picked up the D90 body and looked at it. And I will be doggone if it doesn't have a BKT for bracket adjustment on the left side near the flash release. Never saw it before as I almost always adjust exposures up and down by my past experience and the +/- button and rarely bracket automatically. This absolutely disproves the idea one cannot teach an old dog new tricks. I just learned a new one. :)

donaldejose said:
D7000: changing the focus pattern and mode by pressing the auto focus control button (inside the AF-M focus lever and moving the front and rear dials to change auto focus options.

Ditto. A mixture of reading something on NR, reading the manual, then just playing around to really find out what can be done.

jonnyapple said:
I'm the kind of person who reads the manual before I get the camera (I know: ridiculous).

Ditto again. Not just cameras, but all sorts of (expensive) technology kit. Reading the manual helps you see through all the glossy advertising (which can be misleading) and see what the camera really can and cannot do. I cannot imagine buying any camera without browsing through the manual first.

I like the multishot timer setting on the D5000. It was cool to have when we went out to take some pictures of my wife and I together. I found it when messing with the settings while we were out there. We did a picture walking away from the camera and it was cool to have it take a series of photos to pick the best one out of the bunch.

Anaxagoras said:
Reading the manual helps you see through all the glossy advertising (which can be misleading) and see what the camera really can and cannot do. I cannot imagine buying any camera without browsing through the manual first.

In all seriousness, I did go through my D700 manual when I first got it and it was a lot of "blah blah blah.. but how do I turn it on?". 6 months later I went through again with alot of "Omg! That is incredibly useful!"

more then 2 years later and 150,000 shutter activations.. "there are lights on top?"

The [worst] feature I found purely by accident . . . the D3s does not have separate flash exposure compensation control. The work-around is to set shutter speed and aperture manually, then use exposure compensation to control any connected Speedlight. Thankfully, this has been corrected in the D4.

Best unsuspected feature recently (D300 / D300s): When having done some shooting of a subject and reviewing the shots on the LCD, i press the "Lock Button" (the little key button) for the shots i wanna keep, then afterwards its super fast deleting the not wanted shots by using the "Delete All"function in the playback menu, and it speeds up the work after downloading to the PC because the locked shots are found quickly by Capture NX2 ..

Anaxagoras said:
I cannot imagine buying any camera without browsing through the manual first.

Great idea. Except all the cameras which are new and the one's we are very anxious to have and the one's we have been waiting.... maybe a year for, like the D4, mmm.... no manual online yet. But I have studied the D3s manual and find the nice thing about Nikon is the consistency between models at the pro level. No major changes to screw up old folks like me, ha, ha, ha.....

DutchNikon said:
Best unsuspected feature recently (D300 / D300s): When having done some shooting of a subject and reviewing the shots on the LCD, i press the "Lock Button" (the little key button) for the shots i wanna keep, then afterwards its super fast deleting the not wanted shots by using the "Delete All"function in the playback menu, and it speeds up the work after downloading to the PC because the locked shots are found quickly by Capture NX2 ..

You've got shots on your card that you want to keep, and you confirm a "Delete All" question? You're braver than me! :-)

DutchNikon said:
Best unsuspected feature recently (D300 / D300s): When having done some shooting of a subject and reviewing the shots on the LCD, i press the "Lock Button" (the little key button) for the shots i wanna keep, then afterwards its super fast deleting the not wanted shots by using the "Delete All"function in the playback menu, and it speeds up the work after downloading to the PC because the locked shots are found quickly by Capture NX2 ..

Yup, this takes a lot of chutzpah to delete everything. I always format the memory card after I download. And even if images are "locked" they go the same way everything else does when formatted. Gone. So, a bit of caution before concluding the "locked" function actually is bullet proof. It prevents delete, but not format erasure.

If this sounds so scary, why don't you give it a try ?
Just shoot away on an empthy memory card, then lock some of the pic's, and use the "delete all" function ( not the format.. :-) ) and see what you end up with...

I consider this kind off experiments part of the "Know your Equiment" learning curve.. try every function and see how it can help you...

Other Advantages of the "Lock & delete all"method :
- Saves time when downloading to your PC
- Frees up space "in the field" if on memory shortage.

Just shoot away on an empthy memory card, then lock some of the pic's, and use the "delete all" function ( not the format.. :-) ) and see what you end up with...

I consider this kind off experiments part of the "Know your Equiment" learning curve.. try every function and see how it can help you...

Absolutely, I do this! No way to learn than to try. I have mentioned on another thread about my habit of sticking a prime on, even a long lens, e.g.., 135mm on DX, and simply going out and shooting. What I find is a new learning curve. Rather than zooming in and out, I actually have to move. Discover distance to subject, etc. So, I could not agree more to the "Know Your Equipment" learning curve.

I've bought all three of my grips (MB-D10, MB-D80, MB-15) second-hand so I've never seen the manual that comes with them. After years of constantly misplacing the rubber contact cover/battery door, I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be great if when they design the next one of these, they give you a place to store this stupid little piece I keep loosing?"
I went to go see where I would put it if I were in charge and sure enough, on all three, there's a place to store the cover/door while you're using your grip. This discovery changed my entire outlook on the universe. I even went and woke my wife up to tell her what I had found.

DutchNikon said:
If this sounds so scary, why don't you give it a try ?
Just shoot away on an empthy memory card, then lock some of the pic's, and use the "delete all" function ( not the format.. :-) ) and see what you end up with...

I consider this kind off experiments part of the "Know your Equiment" learning curve.. try every function and see how it can help you...

Other Advantages of the "Lock & delete all"method :
- Saves time when downloading to your PC
- Frees up space "in the field" if on memory shortage.

Oh I understand the theory alright, and your examples of the benefits it offers are all excellent and very useful......I just couldn't do it :-) I suppose if I found myself in a situation where I had run out of memory space I might be tempted to try it, but at the moment, I've never had to make that decision. Am I paranoid?